Jen Davis-Wilson

Oh my gosh, she's real!

Eleanor, my brand-new niece:

My niece is born! Eleanor (Ellie) Rose Hasty, 6 lb 5 oz, 20 inches. Born at 5:30 in the morning in Illinois.

It's been a month of fun weekend trips. Finn is learning the limits of his physical endurance.

Last weekend we went to Chico for the annual tubing expedition. It was dog-tastic. 7 dogs, although 3 of those weren't interested in playing much. However, Finn, Brigid, Skipper, and Rheimer (sp?) had a blast roughhousing, playing in the river, and generally giving in to their essential dogginess.

This weekend I went up to El Dorado National Forest near Tahoe for a backpacking trip with a bunch of coworkers. It was my first backpacking trip, so I had to buy a pack and some other accessories for it.
We had a "resupply air drop". Two ex-IDEOers have a small plane, and they packed up a package of desserts and dropped them from the plane into the lake. We coordinated with radios, and it was pretty awesome. I was one of the people that swam out into the lake to rescue the package and chutes, although the Navy Seal guy we had with us probably could have done it alone just as easily.

I had a good time, and learned a number of valuable lessons:

1. 8 miles is too long to hike for the first time with a loaded pack.
2. Always bring bug spray.
3. Water filters are worth the extra weight.
4. The lightweight inflatable thermarest is worth every penny.
5. I need hiking boots. My toes did not care for loaded packing in my running shoes.
6. Don't expect to "enjoy nature" in the company of 20+ other people. It's still fun, just a different experience.
7. Backcountry cooking is best done in pairs. I had joined a group of a dozen or so that split up the meals into one meal per three people, which meant packing in more food than was needed, and trying to cook for 12 on little camp stoves. I probably carried an extra 5 lbs, and had to pack out leftovers and trash. We all had to eat at other people's schedules, and eat what other people chose to cook. Some of the meals took forever to cook, and the cleanup was pretty massive. Self-sufficiency is the way to go.
8. Finn needs booties for hiking on granite.
9. Finn does just ok in groups of strangers with me there, but would prefer small groups or just the two of us. I am of similar mind.
10. Finn can't tell me where he's hurt or sore, so next time I'll take it a lot slower with him.
11. Sap is hard to get out of fur (and bare human feet too).
12. Just as mountain biking =/= equal road biking on gravel, backpacking =/= hiking with "a little extra weight". I'm sore!

Pictures of both trips on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendaviswilson/

How I know the walnuts on our tree are ripe:

1. Walnut-shrapnel suddenly covering the pavement under the tree.
2. A persistent snicking sound, which at first I thought was water drips, and turned out instead to be the sound of multiple squirrels perched in the tree nibbling at tasty walnuts.

I'm around Finn all the time, so I don't often notice small changes. For instance, in looking back over the Finn Flickr set, I can see that his pants and tail are now much, much fluffier than they used to be. His nose faded over the winter, but now is getting a bit darker again.

But in the past couple of weeks, he's suddenly sprouted crazy crimpy ear-tuft-sideburn things! Check it out!

If you look at the user icon, you can see he is tuft-free. I suppose this is Finn's version of the college goatee?

Watching Finn eat a cherry tomato is hilarious.

As a rule, Finn doesn't eat fruits and most veggies. He carefully picks them up in his front teeth, takes them away to investigate, and usually leaves them on the ground somewhere.

The tomato tastes juuuust good enough to keep him interested. He licks it. It rolls. He pounces. It leaks a little seed juice that he licks up. He paws it. It rolls. He pounces. Continue until the tomato doesn't have enough guts left, and he leaves the wrinkly thing on the floor.

I took a semi-spontaneous trip to IL last weekend. My little sister Brenna and I planned it out in June--my older sister Amy is about to pop with a baby, and her shower was on the 5th. She and her husband Robb also always have a big 4th of July weekend party. So I hopped on a plane and Brenna picked me up at O'Hare, and we surprised the rest of my family with a surprise visit.

I think I really needed a vacation. I haven't been back to the "homestead" in a long time, and not in summer in ages. The weather couldn't have been nicer. It's a very different world than suburban Bay Area, and I kept being envious about the vast tracts of land. Amy and Robb live next to my parents, and all told they have about 40-odd acres, most of which is wooded along a large creek. I've been combing Redfin for the past few weeks, and then number of lots more than .25 acres and still within 20 mins of Mountain View I can count on one hand. Mom's flower gardens alone account for about as much square footage as an average peninsula parcel.

Anyway, I got in some good family time, saw some stars, got some mosquito bites, watched Robb's amazing fireworks show (they had a big budget and put on a show to rival most small town shows), ate lots of hearty midwestern food.

This weekend is more rural fun up in Chico, and this time Finn gets to come! He is going to LOVE it.

You know how they say that when it comes to baked goods, you should follow the recipe exactly because it's like a chemical formula?

When it comes to muffins, that's crap.

I just measured baking soda with the palm of my hand, and threw in some extra whey for moisture because the batter didn't look "muffiny" enough after following the recipe (and I have too much whey). My muffins are turning out to be the best-looking batch I've ever made.

I don't have enough sunlight in my yard to grow anything, really. <lj-cut text="But I try anyway..." This, my friends, is what happens when you read too much about urban homesteading. Particulary the book from www.homegrownevolution.com. I'm not ever going to realize close to my investment in actual produce, but it makes me feel good to grow things. I like to feel like I'm setting an example. Also, I ordered a worm composting bin (the Wriggly Wranch!) from the county, and I feel like I need to have things for the compost to go on. The Wriggly Wranch has not yet arrived, but I know they got my order since I just got a mailing which Michael described as the official "So You Want To Be a Hippie..." brochure pack--all about free composting classes, what to do with your grass waste, etc. Oh yes! Local people, you can get super-cheap traditional or worm composting bins from the county you live in. At least Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Google your county name and "compost" and you'll probably find it. Yesterday I bought four extra-large pots, four more rectangle planters, drippers and tube for a drip watering system, and a big bunch of redwood 1" sticks. And more soil, heavens! that's a lot of dirt. Over the weekend I turned all of this into three 4' long plant stands to go behind the fence, so now I have double-decker planters in the sunny corner. The sad root-bound tomatoes got transplanted from their 12" pots to 5+ gallon containers, and got two new brothers besides. Then I set up the drip emitters. I like putting together drip irrigation systems. They are kinda like engineering, but really simple. Not like building plant stands from scratch with nothing but hand tools (groan). I planted the extra pots with leftover seeds, and I hope it isn't too late for most of them. Carrots, dill (pickles are coming!), basil (none of my current basil is growing properly), more beans since they are easy. And radishes up the wazoo, because I eat all the radishes I get from the CSA in one sitting, and I also think they might do better in my part-shady yard. Now I must cook things. Just finished two pizzas (one sausage and collards, the other fennel, herbs, sausage, and haloumi cheese). Baked two extra pizza crusts, because I made a double-batch of mozzarella last time and I need to use it soon. Just made pesto from the CSA basil and my bolting parsley. Considering making ravioli today, but I think I'm too tired and I should call it a day. The ricotta has been mixed with lemon thyme and seasoning, but it will keep a day or two. Julian called this morning with banana muffin questions. Which made me realize I have three bananas in the freezer, and I should do the same. Muffins are much easier than homemade pasta.

I don't get it.

Teenagers can set off firecrackers across the street for hours in full view, and Finn doesn't hardly notice. But if someone dares to park their car! near our house! Ohmygodbarking.

What is it with poor neighborhoods and fireworks? They've been going off all weekend from the directions of East Palo Alto (which includes across the street). Some have been impressively loud and explody, setting off car alarms. Seriously guys, get some other hobby. Besides the pot smoking. Quit tempting me to call the cops on you. I don't want to be that guy.

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The heat this week was unbearable, up until today. Yesterday Finn and I escaped to Fort Funston, which was at least 20 degrees cooler. We ran through surf. Finn swam a little, chasing a rock I'd skipped, and even surfed a little wave back into shore. I don't think he cared for the experience, though. The ocean freaks him out a little. Give him a placid lake full of tadpoles any day.

We spent the rest of the day lolling about complaining about how hot it was, and trying to be good global citizens by ignoring the fact that our house has air conditioning. Shutting the windows and curtains during the day and then opening them in the evening seemed to keep things at a bearable 85 or so, as long as we kept activities on the level of net-surfing, reading, and bath-taking. There was some hiding in the basement in the midday heat, too. I did nothing of actual value other than exercising Finn, exfoliating my feet by running barefoot in sand, and making a sorrel & homemade haloumi cheese omelet. Verdict: sorrel is too sour for omelets. I'd rather just eat it raw. Also, my homemade haloumi needs serious soakage in water to reduce the saltiness. After 10 minutes soaking it was good in the omelet. Later I pan-fried up some, but hadn't soaked it enough beforehand, and it was toxic-salty. But that's the trade off you make for cheese that can sit in its brine in this heat and not spoil.

Today the heat broke, and Finn and I celebrated with a joyful morning walk/jog, some agility practice (you should see him do the weave poles!), and a good long dog park romp in the afternoon. Lots of people were in the dog park today, presumably because everyone had been avoiding it in the heat, and the cooler weather gave an outlet to the growing threat of mutiny. I also managed to get in a good 2.5 mile runj in the early evening. I still didn't accomplish much, other than reading a lot of urban homesteading blogs.

Homesteading is a tricky topic. Some blogs veer way too far into the self-righteous hippie-crazy, while others are rural "god bless" gun-toting survivalists. The middle ground of people that just want to be independent, self-sufficient, diy-ers and in the meantime do good things for the planet and their own health, well, that is hard to find. I have to keep a good rein on my own prejudices while trying to enjoy the tales of chicken-raising and green bean canning.

I have a new icon! Stolen from senatorhatty. On this computer it looks like the re-sampling made my teeth radioactive. Will fix later.

It is daaaamn hot. 84 degrees in the kitchen at 9pm. It must have been well over 100 in downtown Palo Alto today. We have a heat advisory in effect. I spent most of the day in a very air-conditioned office, but the bike rides to and from work were steamy.

Finn is having a tough time with the heat. Not because he's hot, but because all the doors and windows are open, which lets in bugs. Finn cannot abide bugs flying around, and insists on hunting them down and snapping them out of the air. He's on a constant vigilance bug hunt.

I did manage to stop him biting the yellow jacket outside today. Whew.

Is it time to download Firefox 3 yet, or should I wait?

I made Haloumi cheese yesterday!

It was my first hard cheese. I made it because I just read an article on how great it is for grilling since it doesn't melt. It's also a brined cheese, which means I can age it at room temperature in the brine bath for up to 60 days.

It's quite a process, though. It took hours and hours. First you have to clean and sterilize all the equipment, and then you have to sloooowly bring the temperature up, add the bacteria and rennet, and let it sit for a while, cut the curds and raise the temperature slooowly again and let it sit for a while again, then strain and press the curds for a long time, then cook the curds in the whey for an hour, then let them cools for a couple of hours before they finally go in the brine. It's not all active time, but it does tie you to your kitchen. Oh yeah, and the initial stages use your sink as a water bath, so you can't do anything that involves a sink for about three hours.

The pressing was interesting--I don't have 30-50 lbs of free weight plates laying around, so I used a stack of large cookbooks and a gallon jug of water. In the inital pressing stages while the cheese was still a bit soft, the whole thing kept tumbling down if I took my eyes off of it for a minute. Next time I need to find a more stable pressing method.

I might make farmhouse cheddar today, but first I need to deal with the kitchen disaster that is haloumi + last night's roasted chicken dinner.

It is hot. My dog sleeps. He is cute. I drink mojitos. All is well.

So Finn and I are about 9 weeks into our agility classes. I thought it would take forever before we were able to do obstacles in sequence, but we now do those all the time!

Finn is great at it. I am a stupid head. We had one run that involved a jump, a tire jump followed by a 90 degree turn (when the tempting dog walk was right ahead of it), and then a jump in which you had to get in front of the dog and pivot (called a front cross) to send him to another jump and then a tunnel, followed by a straight line of jumps and the a-frame.

We're all pretty much beginners so we all failed to keep our dogs from running up the dog walk after the tire. We also failed the front cross, except the one guy who has trained three other dogs already.

But the instructor made the next run fairly easy, so we all did it with zero commands at all, which was awesome! The dog just knows!

orichalcum just had a post about how to get sticky off a carpet, and I thought it would be useful to post my personal chemical warfare system.

Anything can be cleaned with varying levels of these four things. You want to always start gentle and crank one of those things up a notch at a time:
-Heat
-Mechanical action (scrubbing, scraping, rubbing)
-Chemicals (from water to sulfuric acid)
-Time

If you need chemicals, here's my list in ascending order. I try one at a time and move up the list if the first didn't work.

Grease based
Examples: spilled oil, wax residue (after you've ironed up the wax), kitchen messes, oil spots on clothes, lipstick.
Use Bases (high pH).
1. Absorb the excess. Paper towel, kitty litter, sawdust.
2. Soap & hot water or 409
3. Baking soda (if scrubbing is needed)
4. Laundry detergent (for fabrics)
5. Ammonia (the perfect thing for oil spots on clothes that don't wash out in the laundry.)

Mineral or soap-based
Examples: mineral deposits on appliances and bath fixtures, soap scum, scalded milk in pots, rust stains

Use Acids (low pH)
1. Vinegar (start diluted, go stronger)
2. Cream of tartar (for scrubbing)
3. Non-bleach shower cleaner
4. Special formulations for rust, lime scale, tarnish etc. Be careful, these will BURN you.
5. Toilet cleaner
6. Drain cleaner
I've never had to resort to toilet or drain cleaner. That stuff is nasty and you should wear thick gloves to even touch the bottles.


Sticky
Examples: gum, labels, some glues

Use Oils
1. Hot water (a lot of labels have water-soluble glue. Hot water also gets the paper off first.)
2. Cooking oil
3. WD-40, Goo gone, Goof Off, etc. These might dissolve plastics.
4. See "paint" section.


Paint & ink
Examples: printed-on labels, sharpie marks, painted stuff, marks on whiteboard

Use solvents
1. Soap & water
2. High-proof alcohol, like vodka.
3. Extreme proof-alcohol, like 151 or rubbing alcohol. (This will get sharpie right out.)
4. Non-acetone nail-polish remover.
5. WD-40
6. Bleach (works only on some inks, not paint)
7. Acetone or regular nail-polish remover.
8. Mineral spirits
9. Turpentine
10. Paint stripper. Super-nasty stuff, extreme last resort.

I have this problem. When I clean the kitchen, for about two minutes I'm like, "Whew! Clean kitchen! Thank goodness that's done." Then three minutes later, I think the kitchen looks so inviting, that I start thinking of things to cook in it. Which makes the kitchen messy again.

Today I made a strawberry pie, squash muffins, and sourdough bread (still in process). I now can not make dinner because I just can't deal with another clean/messy cycle today.

Today was a homestead kind of day. Michael and I (and Finn) drove down to Watsonville for the strawberry picking day of our CSA. U-pick strawberries are cheaper than store-bought ones, but the gas makes up more than the difference. But the point isn't the cost, it's the fun of the outing and getting to choose your own berries (and eat a few along the way). We saw a little boy that was head to Crocs stained red. I assume the farm stand takes into account the "shrinkage" in the price, because sun-warmed strawberries are pretty irresistable. We bought 17 lbs of strawberries. SEVENTEEN POUNDS. I turned most of that into marmalade and jam this afternoon, and another good amount of it went into tummies. There is still quite a bit left, and those that don't get eaten tomorrow will go in the freezer. Finn is still suspicious of strawberries (they being not of cheese, bread, or meat ilk), and if given one, he'll pick it up by the leaves and carry it outside to lick, but I don't think he'll eat them yet.

I obsessively drew up a produce plan on the kitchen chalkboards, since our fridge is stuffed with veggies. To help curb the green tide, I made a fancy dinner tonight of sale-priced filet mignon, collard greens with leeks and garlic, and turnips braised in honey and red wine. I'm a little tired of standing by a smoking/steaming stove today now. And I still have sticky strawberry jam goo all over the counters.

In all, a very good day.

Well, we're committed now to bikes. Michael bought a bike last weekend for commuting to his Barbri classes at Stanford. (Go Michael!) The realities of a 2-commuter bike household is that we can't get away with leaning one smallish bike behind the door anymore. Michael's bike is like a Great Dane to my bike's Labrador. So I moved some furniture around and bought a wall rack. Now we have a very large bike sculpture in the living room.

So once before, Finn had the runs and wasn't able to get me out of bed in the middle of the night, and so he chose Michael's shower stall to relive himself. I thought that was pretty inspired.

TodayM he woke me up at six for a walk, so he didn't get another one in the late morning. We left to go bike shopping for Michael. When we came back, it smelled. I guess his tummy was upset again and we should have walked him before we left. So we looked around for it. This time Finn had used my bathtub.

Now the first time could have been a fluke, since he cn walk into the stall and it was dry because Michael was out of town. But he has to jump into my tub, and it was wet, and he never intentionally does that since that's where he gets a bath.

I can only assume that either someone trained him well or he's a genius.